A key thinker of the 20th century died a few days ago. Jürgen Habermas, a German, was born in 1929, during the Great Depression. He lived through the defeat of 1945, the Constitution drafted by the Allies for the new Federal Republic in 1949, the crisis of East Germany in 1989 and reunification, and lamented the missed opportunity of not creating a new constitution for Germany in 1990. Habermas defended a political reality based on three principles: promoting participation and transparency of information. He believed that individuals should be able to distance themselves from events and exercise their own judgment, to think for themselves, but his opinion has been largely forgotten. He observed with concern the drift toward technocracy and the erosion of solidarity. He was a political conciliator and a representative of the Frankfurt School and of the more European, restrained, and analytical German thought. An anchor for stability. His passing is a loss for Europe. He said on numerous occasions that the homeland of Europeans should be Europe, not small national homelands. Habermas thought big.

On January 29, 1981, during a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez resigned. "I am leaving without having been asked to [...] I am leaving so that this system of freedoms, for which I have suffered greatly [...], is not abruptly interrupted [...], but it has been worth it. If my sacrifice once served to build democracy, this one must serve to prevent its destruction." "I have lost the trust of the powers that be, I have lost the acceptance of the press, I have lost legitimacy in the eyes of the opposition, I have lost the credibility of a large part of our electorate, I have lost my own party [...]". The moment was solemn. The Minister of Defense, Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún, inappropriately requested the floor and announced the appointment of General Alfonso Armada as Deputy Chief of the Army Staff. Prime Minister Suárez glared at him.

This article aims to define how train services in Catalonia can be separated with two objectives: to clearly identify the responsibilities of the Catalan government (Generalitat) and the central government, and to facilitate their management. The proposal negotiated between the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and the central government does not achieve this goal. Responsibilities are shared, and management is entrusted to Renfe, an operator that has demonstrated its shortcomings in the current model. This is the solution that will most likely be implemented because it is the quickest and most practical: first, we recover the commuter and regional train services. When the system's limitations become apparent again in the short term, it will be necessary to remember that better alternative solutions exist. The one proposed here is one of them.

When the wind blows strongly and the waves are large, if the boat lacks power, it becomes uncontrollable. The sea and the wind win. Therefore, the sail area should not be reduced, but increased. It is the sails that give the boat the power to overcome the sea.

There are so many pronouncements on the matter that it's likely the average citizen won't understand either the essential or the secondary aspects. Two essential matters.

Until 1914, without the UN or the League of Nations, the world was governed by spheres of influence. There was one, Europe, and a single influential state, the United Kingdom, which based its control of trade on its colonial empire.

In the Chinese market, electric cars can be found for €10,000. An equivalent American model costs €30,000. China dominates 80% of the solar energy market and, in 2024 alone, installed 277 gigawatts of solar capacity, more than five times the amount installed in the United States during the same period. To a large extent, China's expansion is a consequence of its state-run, planned economy. Years ago, China focused on the production of coal, cement, steel, and other raw materials. Today, it's consumer goods and advanced technology.

Electromagnetic waves do not travel through water; sound waves, however, do, through pressure changes. Electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light, 300,000 km/second; sound waves, at 1,500 km/second, and, being mechanical, their speed varies depending on the conditions of the medium through which they propagate, the water temperature, etc. Sound waves exhibit the effects of reflection and refraction, meaning they do not travel in a straight line, unlike electromagnetic waves in air or a vacuum.

Europe is suffering a protracted and purposeful aggression from Russia. The disproportion between the triviality of the war's justifications and the magnitude of the harm inflicted makes the situation difficult for Russia itself to resolve. It has resulted in 280,000 deaths, 800,000 injuries, and 6 million displaced persons, as well as material damage exceeding €175 billion, according to the World Bank. The arbitrary nature of the aggression makes its recurrence likely if the conflict ends without reparations.

The far right presents an argument based on facts or general beliefs: housing is too expensive for most families, public authorities treat immigrants better than citizens, there is insecurity on the streets due to the high crime rate among immigrants, the EU is overly regulatory and costs us a lot of money. Simple, direct messages, with little nuance. Traditional parties, conservatives and social democrats, present arguments that are more ideological than factual. They don't contrast facts, but rather ideas. For many people, these ideas are far removed from what directly matters to them. Facts are immediate; ideas are less so because they are nuanced.

We are living through a crazy 2025. It's hardly necessary to remind ourselves: in Gaza, genocide; in Ukraine, the unjustified invasion; in Russia, the dictatorship that has caused a war born of a desire for revenge; in Sudan, human devastation; in the US, the abuse of power that erodes its democracy and harms the world political order; in the EU, a narrow and short-sighted vision.

The French Parliament is divided into three similarly sized blocs. The left: the New Popular Front, 180 seats. The right: the National Regrouping, 142; the Republicans, 39; other right-wing parties, 27; total, 208. The center: the Ensemble, 159; others, 30; total, 189. This had never happened in the Fifth Republic, which was built on a two-party political structure. And Macron should be president of the entire state, not the leader of a political movement. This is his mistake, and he doesn't know how to escape it.

Conservatives believe that order comes first, so that justice and freedom can follow. Without the first, second, and third, order are impossible. Churchill expressed this in the 1930s. The political void and disorder from 1914 to 1918 made war inevitable in 1939.

EU goods exports to the US amount to €532 billion and imports €334 billion. Europe has a surplus of €198 billion. Trump has imposed a 20% tariff on EU exports, which will cost the EU €106 billion and will be transferred to the US.

The US-China framework agreement announced in June did not represent a "liberation" from unilateral US "greatness," as President Trump had dreamed, nor a return to the Democrats' policy of successfully managing rivalry with China. It was the beginning of aggressive, confrontational interdependence based on the use of economic "weapons," sanctions, tariffs, embargoes, anti-export and anti-trade measures... combined with military force.

Heidegger, the philosopher who became a Nazi militant, rector of the University of Freiburg in the 1930s, and also, surprisingly, in the 1950s, defined reality through two concepts: space, that which does not change, and time, that which by nature is change. He gave rise to strict materialism. This poses a problem: "Materialism is only reality," and therefore consciousness does not exist, which poses an insoluble inconsistency for materialism. It is impossible for consciousness not to exist, because if it did, the concept of matter would be in crisis: how could it exist outside of thought, without a definition?

There is a Spanish saying that goes: "What cannot be will not be... and it is also impossiblePolitics, public opinion, and published opinion often express impossible or implausible certainties, but an impossibility is still so for it to be highly desired. For a reality or a right to be confirmed, it takes time to mature until it becomes inevitable. It's absurd and pointlessly tiring; fighting for what is difficult is worthwhile and is the most valuable action of humankind. Leading new ideas requires courage, rowing against the current with energy, patience, and perseverance. Facts, totally diverse but all recent, illustrate these principles.

The Trump administration's vision includes no alternatives to the potential failure of its policy. Since 1945, US power has been based on its own strength and also on the support of a world in which 90% of international transactions are conducted in dollars and the most impactful cultural tools—language, film, television, music, social media—are dominated by over 50% of the US. American power was, and still is, based more on cooperation than coercion.

I was president of the Port of Barcelona. Toni Cruz and Josep Maria Mainat bought a motor yacht in Greece, which they rented to tourists. The vessel's appearance was impeccable: a 1950s design, a large funnel, a cruising stern, and a distinct vessel and superstructure... One little steamer: ideal for people with little experience at sea.

President Trump uses political confrontation not only as a tool for negotiating strategy.